Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ok somebody help me out here....

[Douglas Anderson (dnt]

Brian notes “Race a 356? Only has, what 70 horsepower? “

 

Heh heh

Depends upon WHAT 356 you have.  Porsche needed to raise money to get the old man out of WWII French “jail.”  So they built the first 356 in Gmund Austria. Sold those cars, raised bail and got Ferdinand out of jail. Moved back to Stuttgart and went racing in the under 1500 class.  Cleaned up.  Those cars could corner as fast as they went down the straights.  Moved up to 1600cc class with Carrera 4 cam engine.  Continued to clean up.  They stayed in the kiddy pool until the 917.  While developing the 917’s 12 cylinder engine they needed to keep it a secret – so they classified that engine design as “Type 912” to fool anyone thinking they might just be developing the 912 (the 4 cylinder little brother to the 911) car for racing.  And so it went.  Surprise.

Doug